Archbishop Desmond Tutu has urged the South African government to grant the
Dalai Lama a visa to attend his 80th birthday party in October.

South Africa turned down a previous request made by the Tibetan spiritual leader to visit in 2009, saying it would distract from preparations for the football World Cup, held in the country last year. It was widely believed Pretoria's real reason for rejecting the request was a desire not to jeopardise its strong trading ties with China.

The Archbishop's birthday party will be held on October 7 in Cape Town and luminaries from around the world are expected to attend including, potentially, the Archbishop of Canterbury who will be in the region visiting Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi.

"We have accordingly advised our diplomatic mission to immediate inform Pretoria as soon as such an application is received," he said.

"Upon receipt of such an application, the matter will be given the necessary attention from Pretoria."

When the Dalai Lama's application was rejected last time, it prompted Archbishop Tutu and FW de Klerk, the last apartheid president who won the Nobel Peace Prize with Nelson Mandela, to pull out of a peace conference he was due to attend.

Since then, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, South Africa's Foreign Minister, has said that the Dalai Lama was welcome to visit South Africa and the earlier decision was simply a mix-up.

The 76-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate recently stepped down as the head of Tibet’s government in exile, but is expected to retain significant influence on major policy decisions.